nicksmith April 10, 2009 Features 1,385 views Comments Print This Post  Email This Post

Update: Your thoughts on the Video Game Character Mount Rushmore.

There is a monument in the United States devoted to four of our greatest American Presidents. Mt. Rushmore is a stone monument that features carved out heads of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.

These four men have been great examples of leaders of our country, but the monument was made from 1927-1941 so many have argued that there would be better fits for the monument now. If people had their way, it may look different if built today.

In the video game world there has been no such monument built so we thought it would be fun to try and pick the four most worthy gaming icons for our fictional statue. Selecting just four was no easy task. In fact every single recommendation was different than the next. In narrowing down the field we used the criteria of longevity, importance to the industry, and how recognizable the characters are.

 

The first choice was the only one that is probably unanimous across the board. The lovable plumber Mario is the face of video games and has been since he jumped on the scene back in the early 1980’s. His credentials are limitless. Mario has been the face of the Nintendo brand and has continued to be the biggest draw on each of their consoles. Mario has had his own cartoons, live action television shows, movies, and toys. Many other games have since followed in his footsteps, but very few have come close to the success or longevity.

Master Chief is probably one of the more arguable names on this list. The Halo franchise has not been around as long as some of the others but it looks like it is going nowhere. In the case of Master Chief, he has helped make Microsoft relevant in gaming with two consoles and three blockbuster games. Halo 3 continues to be at the top of the most played games on Xbox Live and is getting updates to the game well after the first year of release.

Lara Croft is probably another controversial pick. She is a well recognized character that has been featured on multiple platforms for many years in the Tomb Raider franchise. She is arguably the most relevant woman character to date with blockbuster movies, and has spawned a following female gamers that identify with her. You would be hard-pressed to go to any gaming convention or cos-play event and not see many Tomb Raiders running around.

Sonic the Hedgehog was the poster character for Sega throughout their golden years. Sonic was the face of their consoles and now that Sega no longer is making systems, he has remained the face of their brand. Sonic has also began to cross over into other games and still remains a strong gaming icon after Sega lost the console war.

There were a few others that wrestled with including. Pac-Man has the long career but has faded. Then the other Nintendo characters like Zelda’s Link, Donkey Kong, or Samus were all trumped by Mario. It could have very easily been an all classic NES monument.

The collage is of course our picks as the monument and many of the others that were suggested or that we discussed when compiling the list. Can you find and name all of the characters or games hidden in there? Be sure to look at the larger version so you don’t miss anything.

So there are our picks. We wanted to share some of the picks of our friends on Twitter and we want to hear your thoughts too, so please let us know who you would have rather seen in the list.

@jchan3 Mario, Solid Snake, Link and Master Chief

@pswapninja true forefathers that became templates: Mario, BJ Blazkowicz, Pitfall Harry and Pac-Man

@Themikebrown Mario, Sonic, Gordon Freeman, recognizable UT char

@videogamesalsa Link, Mario, PacMan and Donkey Kong

@gregmattersen -top 4 mount rushmore video game characters: Link, Snake, Lara Croft,
and the 3rd from the top, 2nd from the right Space Invader

@KingQuagmire Master Chief, Mario, Laura Croft,&Pinkey

Anyone else agree with our picks? Who would be more deserving? Let us know here or on Twitter @pwn_or_die

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